Chapter 24 Nolan's POV

What did I expect?

I expected Douglas to rise in rage, I expected him to overturn his office in anger. I expected him to demand that I pour my blood out as a sacrifice for him. I expected anything but the wide-toothed smile he offered when he rose to his feet and held his hands out. He wasn’t holding them out to hug me mind you, he just held them out.

“Nolan, what took you so long?”

I squared my shoulders and walked in. Bob was watching, Lurane was still seething. Hearing her father speak in such a friendly tone to me she rose from her lounge on the chaise to glare at him. Douglas’s office was set up like that of a 16th-century lord. There was antique furniture, the rugs were antique, and the priceless ceramics which should be in a museum now stood on stands, they were probably hundreds of years old, how he acquired them I will never know. Even the chaise on which Lurane lounged had a large handmade embroidery of a garden scene on it. Still glaring at her father she swung her heeled f